Emily Mortimer

I'd been shy since childhood, constantly full of self-doubt. And as an actor, I'd been so scared of failing that I made my career - and myself - a big joke. ”

I'm a dual citizen, as are my husband and children. We have got eight passports between us; we're weighed down by them whenever we go anywhere. ”

Los Angeles is like a beauty parlor at the end of the universe. ”

I'm an optimist by nature, myself, I think. ”

I went to dinner with my mother-in-law and I just realized I was talking in sound bites to her and expecting her to laugh every time I said anything or be jotting something down in a notebook. So you have to kind of really have a talk with yourself after you've done a press tour and say, 'Chill out!' ”

The thing I miss about L.A. is time. I feel like I had much more time there, partly because no one is ever really doing anything. ”

New York is great, but I miss L.A. - I feel like there was something exotic about L.A. that I kind of underestimated at the time. It was very unfamiliar to me. ”

I think half the time I just assume I don't really know what I'm doing - you have to do that to a certain extent, but you don't have to think you're an idiot savant. ”

I never felt I was quite the ticket academically. I always felt I had to put in an enormous amount of effort not to be disappointing. So I worked really hard, but at the time it suited me, because I didn't do very much else. ”

You are exposing yourself all the time as an actor. There's the risk of being thought of as bad or boring or unattractive. ”